1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording method for recording an image onto a recording medium having a flat image recording surface, while rotating the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an apparatus for recording an image and the like onto an image recording surface on the side opposite to a data recording surface for recording data in a recording medium such as a CD or DVD, there is an apparatus provided with an ink-jet head which ejects ink droplets from a nozzle onto a rotating recording medium to record an image onto a disk drive which records data into the recording medium. For example, the printing apparatus disclosed in Published Japanese Translation of PCT International Publication for Patent Application No. 2002-531290 has a rotary motor for rotating a disk and an ink-jet head provided with a plurality of nozzles arranged in a row on a radial axis. This printing apparatus drives the ink-jet head while rotating the disk by the rotary motor, and records an image on a surface of the disk by ejecting ink droplets onto the disk.
In the printing apparatus described in Published Japanese Translation of PCT International Publication for Patent Application No. 2002-531290, rotation of the disk stops immediately after recording an image by ejecting ink onto the image recording surface of the disk. A user waits for the ink on the image recording surface to dry, and removes the disk from the printing apparatus. However, it is likely to take a long time for the ink to naturally dry after the image is recorded on the image recording surface. Therefore, a considerable amount of time may be required when recording images on a large number of image recording surface of disks. Moreover, only a small number of disks may be processed on the printing apparatus per unit time.